Soil Mites

You move a pot to water it, disturb the top layer of soil, and suddenly notice tiny white or orange specks scrambling in every direction. Your stomach drops. Are those bugs? Do you need to act? Before you reach for a spray bottle, here is the single most useful thing to know: soil mites are not automatically a problem. They are a natural part of living soil. In the garden, nobody panics when they turn a shovelful of earth and find mites working through the decomposing matter. Indoors, though, any moving creature near a plant triggers the urge to treat first and ask questions later. ...

You pull back the leaves, glance at the soil, and see something moving. Something tiny. Something that was definitely not there last week. Before you do anything, take a breath. Most tiny bugs in houseplant soil are either harmless or very fixable once you know what you are actually dealing with. The problem is that most people skip the identification step and reach for whatever spray or drench they have on hand. And the wrong treatment either does nothing, or stresses the plant while the real problem continues underground. ...